Jedi under Siege

8

The green-brown river that flowed sluggishly through the primeval forest was broad and powerful, yet outwardly calm. The current showed not the least bit of disturbance from the titanic struggle of good and evil taking place on Yavin 4.

The river hosted numerous life-forms: invisible plankton and carnivorous protozoans, water plants, trees that dangled sharp roots into the flow, and camouflaged predators that disguised themselves as innocuous parts of the landscape.

But as blaster shots rang out and the buzz of lightsabers droned through the jungle, other creatures moved in the thick branches over the river and in the water itself … creatures trained in using the Force.

Rounded reptilian snouts broke the surface of the murky river. Breathing slits rose up, nostrils flaring to draw in welcome oxygen. The three scaly creatures moved slowly enough that only slight ripples whispered across the water. Settling into position deep in the mud, they sniffed and lay in wait near the path at the river’s edge.

Their enemies would come soon.

Moving stealthily yet radiating a supremely confident power, three of the Dark Jedi trainees from the Shadow Academy strode through the underbrush, hacking away the dense vines and branches with their lightsaber blades. They reached the riverbank and paused to consult with each other, still searching for their opponents.

“Skywalker’s Jedi trainees are cowards,” one said. “Why don’t they come out and fight? They all hide in the jungle like terrified rodents.”

“How can they not be afraid of us?” another one said. “They know the power of the dark side.”

Consulting silently, with only a faint stream of bubble for communication, three of Luke Skywalker’s reptilian Cha’a trainees lunged out of the river, spewing a stream of water at their enemies. They used the Force to summon a hammering flow of the river, a column of drenching wetness that reared up like a snake, then splashed down. The Dark Jedi lightsaber blades sizzled and steamed. The three Cha’a hissed and chattered with laughter as they summoned up more and more water.

The waterlogged Dark Jedi sputtered and thrashed from side to side as they attempted to summon up dark-side powers with which to strike back at their reptilian opponents.

Just then, from the dense shelter of the trees above, a trio of feathered avians left their perches and plunged down. They let out a high, fluting whistle of a battle cry.

The Dark Jedi were distracted for a moment, torn between two enemies. Then the avians landed on top of them, driving them to the ground and knocking them unconscious. The avians chirped and screeched in victory as the Cha’a hauled themselves dripping out of the river mud and slogged toward the three new captives.

Working together, Skywalker’s alien Jedi trainees removed whiplike vines from the underbrush and lashed the arms and legs of their prisoners together. One of the Cha’a picked up the discarded Shadow Academy lightsabers, studied the poor construction and unimaginative workmanship. One by one, he tossed the tainted weapons into the river. They splashed, and sank without a trace.

Meanwhile, the avians crouched over the unconscious captives and used their Jedi powers to probe the minds of Brakiss’s students. They added strong Force suggestions to make sure their enemies would continue to sleep for a long time….

Tionne tossed her long silvery-white hair behind her to get it out of the way. She would need her vision unobstructed, with no distractions.

She looked at the other Jedi students with her gleaming mother-of-pearl eyes. Master Skywalker frequently entrusted her with training these students, and now Tionne would do battle. The Yavin 4 academy had often been a target of the forces of evil—but the true Jedi Knights had won before, and she had no doubt they would win again.

She and her students stood around the flat marble slab and broken columns of what had once been an open-air Massassi temple before it was swallowed up by the jungle. This was the place at which they had chosen to make their stand.

“Are you all ready?” Tionne said. “Remember what you have been taught. There is no try. We must succeed in defeating the warriors of the dark side.”

Her students shouted their agreement, looking at her with eyes full of confidence in their abilities and her plan. One of the young women nodded to Tionne, took a deep breath, then ran off into the forest in search of the invading Dark Jedi. Within only moments the young woman cried out, shouting, challenging the trainees of the Shadow Academy.

Tionne heard a lightsaber sizzle. Branches fell … and then came the sound of footsteps crashing through the forest as her student hurried back toward the trap they had set. Tionne gestured silently for the others to prepare themselves.

“Come back here, Jedi vermin!” one of the enemy called, hidden by the thickets.

Four Dark Jedi came plunging through the jungles, bursting into the temple clearing where the panting student stood on the other side of a flat marble slab hanging above their heads. Tionne’s student looked defeated.

The invaders stepped forward. “We will crush your mind with the dark side!” one said.

“Now!” Tionne shouted. From their shadowy hiding places, four of her special students reached out with the Force: in an unexpected, irresistible move, they snatched the four lightsabers from enemy hands. The Dark Jedi cried out in alarm and surprise at losing their weapons. Then Tionne and her students emerged from the underbrush and surrounded them.

“We don’t need our lightsabers to defeat you. We can still flatten you with our power!” said the first overconfident opponent. “The power of the dark side!” All four of the enemy Jedi stood in a tight cluster, back to back, raising their hands.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Tionne said calmly, letting her pale lips show a brief smile. “You wouldn’t want to distract us—a brief fluctuation in our concentration might become a crushing defeat for you.”

She glanced upward. Her four students remained motionless with their eyes closed, focused on their task.

The Dark Jedi looked up and saw that the marble slab they had thought to be the ceiling of a crumbling temple was completely unsupported, a hovering rectangle of rock weighing many tons, balanced over their heads. It floated, held up by nothing but the power of the Force. Tionne’s students maintained their concentration.

The Dark Jedi swallowed hard.

“You can try to escape if you like,” Tionne said. “Maybe you have enough power to subdue all of us with enough left over to catch that block of stone before it falls down on your heads. Maybe.” She shrugged. “It’s your choice, of course. But I wouldn’t risk it.”

The four Dark Jedi exchanged glances, unable to find words. Finally, one by one, they lowered their clenched hands and surrendered.

Tionne heaved a quiet but heartfelt sigh of relief.

Another tree stood in the forest, short and stunted, with a thick trunk. Branches extended out in such a way that, if looked at in a certain light, it had an almost humanoid appearance: one of Master Skywalker’s Jedi, a slow-moving, long-lived plantlike creature.

She often went out to spend days in the sunlight, using photosynthesis to drink in nourishment, absorbing minerals from the soil, water from the river, and carbon dioxide from the air.

She would spend all day, many days at a time, simply contemplating the Force and her place in the universe. Trees remained alive for a long time and did not rush into ill-considered action; yet at times such as this, she could manage to move fast enough. She understood the importance of protecting the Jedi academy.

She had entered into her training to understand the Force, vowing to defend the side of light—and here she found herself in a clear-cut battle against the Shadow Academy. Dark Jedi enemies coursed through the jungle, searching for victims, but Master Skywalker had taught all the trainees well. The light-side students would put up a good fight.

The treelike Jedi stood motionless, watching, sensing the jungle … and she knew her enemies would come to her. She had only to wait. Her roots dug deeper into the soil, drawing on it for greater energy. She felt the sap pulsing through her, boiling in her veins, allowing her to gain the speed for the unwavering action that she would require just this once … she hoped.

She had chosen her spot well, next to an ailing Massassi tree, tall with outspreading branches. Its trunk was nested with vines and dripping with parasitic shelf mushrooms that had tapped into its heartwood and begun devouring the great tree from within.

The Jedi could tell that this great-grandfather of a tree had lived for centuries and centuries….It was the way of things, the cycle of the forest. As plants grew, they went to seed to bear their young, and then slowly decayed to warm organic matter and fertilized the forest for subsequent generations. She saw how the old Massassi tree leaned, observed the surrounding jungle …waited.

She reached out with the Force subtly, gently, so that even the adepts of the Dark Side would not know they were being manipulated. “Come here,” she thought, broadcasting it over and over again. At least one of them would catch the hint. They would think they had detected one of their light-side enemies—but it would be all the plant Jedi’s doing.

After an indeterminate period—she did not measure time in small increments—she sensed a clumsy disturbance: two attackers from the Shadow Academy storming through the forest, as if the delicate ecosystem was no more than a nuisance that they would eradicate completely, given the chance.

The Jedi waited. She had to concentrate. She had to act at the right moment and not waste time thinking, or else her opportunity would pass.

Curled within one of her gnarled branches—a handlike appendage—was a knobby lightsaber built to accommodate her wooden grip.

The two Dark Jedi came into the clearing and stopped. “I see nothing here,” said one. “Lord Brakiss would be ashamed of you. Lord Zekk would take away your lightsaber. The powers of the dark side are wasted on you.”

“I tell you, I sensed it,” said the other. He stepped forward, looking from side to side, studying the quiet jungle. His companion stood next to him, scowling.

At that moment the Jedi used all her stored reserves—and acted. She ignited the lightsaber and slashed sideways with her branch arm, like a bent sapling suddenly released to snap straight again.

“I am sorry, Grandfather Tree,” she said—and her lightsaber blade cleaved through the trunk of the tottering old Massassi tree, severing it from the stump and letting the arms of gravity embrace it. Its wide-branched top leaned over and the tree crashed onto the two Dark Jedi intruders. They had time only to look up with a muffled outcry of surprise as a meteor of branches and vines smashed down upon them.

The Jedi deactivated her lightsaber, then felt a trembling through her entire wooden body. In one act, she had drained months and months of her energy reserves. She stretched her branches up toward the sunlight, dug her roots deeper.

It would take her a long time to recover from this day.